Autolint

Autolint watches your files for jslint-errors. DRY up your js-files, freeing them of all those linting config comments. Gather all your linting preferences in one place per project.

Installation

Make sure you've got node.js and npm, then:

npm install autolint -g

Basic usage

Create a default configuration file by running:

autolint

Tweak the config to your liking, then start linting with:

autolint

Once running, you can see all errors in all files by pressing ctrl-c in the terminal window. To see errors in a single file, update its mtime by saving or touching it.

You can also skip the watching-part, and just lint the entire project once:

autolint --once

It terminates with a non-zero exit code if any lint is found, making it well suited for pre-commit hooks if you are so inclined.

If you're confused by the linting error messages, check out jslinterrors.com.

There's also an autolint maven plugin that's handy for continuous integration.

Configuration

Look at the default configuration lib/default-configuration.js then override specific items in autolint.js. autolint always looks for this file in the current directory.

Example:

module.exports = {
  paths: [
    "lib/**/*.js",
    "test/**/*.js"
  ],
  linterOptions: {
    node: true
  }
};

Excluding files

You can also tell autolint to skip linting some files, like so:

module.exports = {
  excludes: [
    "jquery",
    "underscore",
    "sinon",
    "raphael"
  ]
};

Any files (or paths) containing those words will not be linted, or counted towards your error total.

Growl

If you want autolint to notify you when new lint errors are introduced, you can download Growl here.

Using JSHint

If JSLint is hurting your feelings, you can easily switch to JSHint by adding this to your configuration:

module.exports = {
  "linter": "jshint"
};

Linter options

The defaults are very strict, so tweak them to your liking.

For jslint:

module.exports = {
  linterOptions: {
    indent      : 4,     // the indentation factor
    maxlen      : 80,    // the maximum length of a source line
    maxerr      : 50,    // the maximum number of errors to report per file
    anon        : false, // true, if the space may be omitted in anonymous function declarations
    bitwise     : false, // true, if bitwise operators should be allowed
    browser     : false, // true, if the standard browser globals should be predefined
    cap         : false, // true, if upper case HTML should be allowed
    "continue"  : false, // true, if the continuation statement should be tolerated
    css         : false, // true, if CSS workarounds should be tolerated
    debug       : false, // true, if debugger statements should be allowed
    devel       : false, // true, if logging should be allowed (console, alert, etc.)
    eqeq        : false, // true, if == should be allowed
    es5         : false, // true, if ES5 syntax should be allowed
    evil        : false, // true, if eval should be allowed
    forin       : false, // true, if for in statements need not filter
    fragment    : false, // true, if HTML fragments should be allowed
    newcap      : false, // true, if constructor names capitalization is ignored
    node        : false, // true, if Node.js globals should be predefined
    nomen       : false, // true, if names may have dangling _
    on          : false, // true, if HTML event handlers should be allowed
    passfail    : false, // true, if the scan should stop on first error
    plusplus    : false, // true, if increment/decrement should be allowed
    properties  : false, // true, if all property names must be declared with /*properties*/
    regexp      : false, // true, if the . should be allowed in regexp literals
    rhino       : false, // true, if the Rhino environment globals should be predefined
    undef       : false, // true, if variables can be declared out of order
    unparam     : false, // true, if unused parameters should be tolerated
    sloppy      : false, // true, if the 'use strict'; pragma is optional
    sub         : false, // true, if all forms of subscript notation are tolerated
    vars        : false, // true, if multiple var statements per function should be allowed
    white       : false, // true, if sloppy whitespace is tolerated
    widget      : false, // true  if the Yahoo Widgets globals should be predefined
    windows     : false  // true, if MS Windows-specific globals should be predefined
  }
};

For jshint:

module.exports = {
  linterOptions: {
    asi         : true,  // true, if automatic semicolon insertion should be tolerated
    bitwise     : true,  // true, if bitwise operators should not be allowed
    boss        : true,  // true, if advanced usage of assignments should be allowed
    browser     : true,  // true, if the standard browser globals should be predefined
    couch       : true,  // true, if CouchDB globals should be predefined
    curly       : true,  // true, if curly braces around all blocks should be required
    debug       : true,  // true, if debugger statements should be allowed
    devel       : true,  // true, if logging globals should be predefined (console, alert, etc.)
    dojo        : true,  // true, if Dojo Toolkit globals should be predefined
    eqeqeq      : true,  // true, if === should be required
    eqnull      : true,  // true, if == null comparisons should be tolerated
    es5         : true,  // true, if ES5 syntax should be allowed
    esnext      : true,  // true, if es.next specific syntax should be allowed
    evil        : true,  // true, if eval should be allowed
    expr        : true,  // true, if ExpressionStatement should be allowed as Programs
    forin       : true,  // true, if for in statements must filter
    funcscope   : true,  // true, if only function scope should be used for scope tests
    globalstrict: true,  // true, if global "use strict"; should be allowed (also enables 'strict')
    immed       : true,  // true, if immediate invocations must be wrapped in parens
    iterator    : true,  // true, if the `__iterator__` property should be allowed
    jquery      : true,  // true, if jQuery globals should be predefined
    lastsemic   : true,  // true, if semicolons may be ommitted for the trailing statements inside of a one-line blocks.
    latedef     : true,  // true, if the use before definition should not be tolerated
    laxbreak    : true,  // true, if line breaks should not be checked
    laxcomma    : true,  // true, if line breaks should not be checked around commas
    loopfunc    : true,  // true, if functions should be allowed to be defined within loops
    mootools    : true,  // true, if MooTools globals should be predefined
    multistr    : true,  // true, allow multiline strings
    newcap      : true,  // true, if constructor names must be capitalized
    noarg       : true,  // true, if arguments.caller and arguments.callee should be disallowed
    node        : true,  // true, if the Node.js environment globals should be predefined
    noempty     : true,  // true, if empty blocks should be disallowed
    nonew       : true,  // true, if using `new` for side-effects should be disallowed
    nonstandard : true,  // true, if non-standard (but widely adopted) globals should be predefined
    nomen       : true,  // true, if names should be checked
    onevar      : true,  // true, if only one var statement per function should be allowed
    onecase     : true,  // true, if one case switch statements should be allowed
    passfail    : true,  // true, if the scan should stop on first error
    plusplus    : true,  // true, if increment/decrement should not be allowed
    proto       : true,  // true, if the `__proto__` property should be allowed
    prototypejs : true,  // true, if Prototype and Scriptaculous globals should be predefined
    regexdash   : true,  // true, if unescaped first/last dash (-) inside brackets should be tolerated
    regexp      : true,  // true, if the . should not be allowed in regexp literals
    rhino       : true,  // true, if the Rhino environment globals should be predefined
    undef       : true,  // true, if variables should be declared before used
    scripturl   : true,  // true, if script-targeted URLs should be tolerated
    shadow      : true,  // true, if variable shadowing should be tolerated
    smarttabs   : true,  // true, if smarttabs should be tolerated (http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SmartTabs)
    strict      : true,  // true, if the "use strict"; pragma is required
    sub         : true,  // true, if all forms of subscript notation are tolerated
    supernew    : true,  // true, if `new function () { ... };` and `new Object;` should be tolerated
    trailing    : true,  // true, if trailing whitespace rules apply
    validthis   : true,  // true, if 'this' inside a non-constructor function is valid.
    white       : true,  // true, if strict whitespace rules apply
    wsh         : true   // true, if the Windows Scripting Host environment globals should be predefined
  }
};

The rules in autolint.js are project-wide, but you can still have file and function specific rules, like this:

/*jslint bitwise:true*/

Adding it to the top of the file will allow bitwise operators in the entire file, or you can add it to a single function:

function justHere() {
    /*jslint bitwise:true*/
    return 1 << 1;
}

Changes

1.1.4

• Upgrade to a windows compatible version of node-growl. (Stian Veum Møllersen)

1.1.3

• Better stability of file-watching.

1.1.0

• The configuration file can now also be called autolint-config.js to avoid issues where Windows will try to execute the autolint.js config file when running autolint.

• Now supports the exit signal on Windows to check all files.

1.0.0

Autolint now uses semantic versioning.

• The configuration file is no longer a json-file, but a proper node module. Add module.exports = to the start of the file and rename to autolint.js to upgrade.
• Autolint no longer runs without a config file. Running it without one will prompt you for a default config file to be created.
• Passing --once to autolint makes it not-so-auto. Instead it is run once, exiting with a -1 error code if any lint is found. This makes it well suited for pre-commit-hooks and the like.
• Updated bundled versions of jslint and jshint - these have been significantly changed since last, so your configuration file will certainly need an upgrade too.

Contributors

• Stian Veum Møllersen upgraded to a windows compatible version of node-growl.

Thanks!

Contribute

If you want to help out with features or bug fixes, that's awesome. Check out todo.org for inspiration.

• Fork the project.
• Make your feature addition or bug fix.
• Don't forget tests. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
• Commit and send me a pull request.

Setting up development environment

Check out the source code from your fork:

git clone <url to your fork>
cd autolint

Install buster.js if you haven't already:

npm install buster -g

Then link buster in:

npm link buster

Fetch the dependencies with npm:

npm install

Run the tests to make sure everything works:

buster test

Install watchr to run the tests automatically:

gem install watchr

Then start the autotest with:

watchr watch-tests.watchr

If watchr can't be interrupted with 2x ctrl-c, switch to ruby ~1.9

Also make sure you follow the linting rules with:

autolint

of course. ^^

License

See LICENSE file.